Poets earn a pair of wins during the week

PASADENA, Calif. - The Whittier College volleyball team earned the regular season sweep of Caltech and La Sierra this week. The Poets defeated their Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe, Caltech, 3-0 on Friday and beat La Sierra, 3-0, on Wednesday evening.

Whittier (6-7, 3-5 SCIAC) handled the Beavers, 25-19, 25-16, 25-16. Aya Nakano had a team-high 11 kills with just two errors on 17 attempts. She led the team with a .529 attacking percentage.

Vanessa Amran and Justine Martinez each had a pair of service aces and 10 digs. Natalie Barajas, Shannon Orlins and Melissa Johnson all had a solo block in the win.

The Poets hit for a match high, .389, in the third and final set. As a team the Poets had 18 kills and a mere four errors on 36 attempts.

Amran led the team with 27 assists and Nakano had a team-high 18 digs.

On Wednesday evening the Poets cruised past LSU, 25-12, 25-6, 25-16. For the match the Poets totaled 30 kills (10 in each set) and committed only nine errors (zero in the second set). WC totaled 11 services aces led by Ashley Terich who has three.

Nakano, Johnson and Martinez all had two while Amran and Rose Trigueiro had one apiece.

As a team the Poets had a .276 attacking percentage and had three team blocks. Kashima Patridge had two solo blocks and Amran had one.

The Poets will play their fourth match in five days on Saturday, October 10. The Poets travel to Claremont, Calif., to face Claremont-M-S in a SCIAC match.